Digital Mock Up

My College Choice

My magazine will be for Wyke College. As it is the college I attend I understand in image the college portrays for its self and I know what would be expected from the college if it did produce a magazine. This will make my magazine more realistic and also easier to identify with.

Target Audience

As my target audience is that of college students the age range aimed for is 15-24. The college is also open to anyone who has a good enough GCSE point average. This means attendees can have an A class upbringing or an E class upbringing. This said however, people who attend college have some aspiration and wish to attend university. This will mean my magazine will be aimed at the higher of the tiers e.g. C1, B & A. Saying this the students at college will have very different values. For this reason I believe that if it is students contributing to the magazine, the variation in their beliefs will be conveyed in the magazine, meaning that there will be something for everyone.

Price of my Magazine

My magazine will not be sold externally, but merely in the college. The product will have a small charge of 20p as a token gesture. This will not go to the college however; it will be donated to a charity of the students choosing.

Prezi

College Magazine Ideas on Prezi

Grimsby Institute, GX Magazine Analysis

 

Front Cover

The GX magazine has a consistent colour scheme and font. The house style consists of 3 main colours, blue white and grey. This makes the magazine look professional and the vibrant blue also catches eyes. The transparent bottom half also has txt with a matching blue. This is an example of the consistency of the piece. As well as the main image, which has been edited to look like a cartoon, the images in the lower half are consistently framed despite being different sizes. The smaller images are also anchored with headlines of articles in the magazine which are to the left. The front cover is split up into two clear divides, the top which has no text and just the masthead and the bottom half which has the pictures and the anchorage. The main image has been cleverly integrated into the too. Overall the layout is extremely good. It not only gives necessary insight into the magazine and catches eyes it also gives useful information such as the college website which I think has been put in but does not draw attention.

On the front of the magazine the language is very much aimed at teenagers. Phrases such as 'word on the street' and 'what planet are you on anyway?' are used. These are things that would be used more colloquially and not on the front of a magazine aimed at adults. This is very stereotypical and clearly the person who designed this has a very stereotypical view of teenagers as most young people are not like that, they can actually write, talk and punctuate properly. The magazine puts across a very casual image just by looking at the front cover. It is not very 'grown up' and it’s not a very 'square' front cover. However judging by the anchorage the inside will be a bit more forward about its purpose.

Contents

The contents page does not seem to fit in with the house style.  The colour pink has been introduced. This could be because of the main image in the background which features the colour pink or bad design. Also the colour orange makes an appearance in the contents list. The layout of the contents is fairly average with the list on the left and the pictures on the right. The list is also written in a way to get attention from teenagers. It says 'lets talk about sex' to draw the reader’s attention to a much more serious matter about contraception and STI's. It also has a section of 'boring' black text at the bottom. This is just an editor’s message basically telling the reader who made the magazine and about the next issue etc. it is in black as it doesn’t want to draw attention away from the main article. The pictures on the left are also anchored with various article headings but are not clearly linked with them making it confusing to see which article they belong with. Finally what seems to be the slogan of the magazine 'the word on the street' also makes an appearance again, this could be part of the house style.

Analysis of Brief

My magazine front cover will contain a masthead, a main image which will be a medium close up shot, a bright colour scheme with a house-style of two colours, images to highlight the content of the magazine. It will also have photo captions to accompany the smaller images on the front cover. As the magazine is a college one it will not have a price as it will be free. There will also be a sub-heading matching one of the articles headlines to entice the readers. Finally, the picture on the front of the magazine will relate to the main article in the magazine with a large caption accompanying it.

A publisher would not be responsible for a college magazine. It will more likely be produced by the college, for the college. It could even be produced by a group of students as an extracurricular activity.

The magazine will try to convey a positive message and try to encourage hard work. It will however also come across to be fun and not boring. As the target audience is the college students it will be aimed at teenagers and because it’s written by other students it will not be as stereotyped but more realistically targeted at them.

The representation of the college will be a positive outlook. It will depict a college that is hard-working but also a fun environment. It will be a fairly conventional magazine but won’t be over-stereotypical as the magazine will be made by students of the college.

Preliminary Task

Using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their gasp of DTP.